Is it North or South from here?

Lighthouse Ale

The question in the title seems to baffle people when asking for directions. I rang up a shop asking for directions, I was about 90% certain where the shop was relative to the my position, but just wanted to confirm, to avoid confusion of asking which way to turn at the crossroads and for brevity I asked is your shop North or South of the cross roads, question ignored, I asked again, question ignored.

Does the typical person understand what North, South, East and West mean?

kneemos

No,why would you?

God bless America.

Agricola

This is why I always briny my pocket sundial. Never leave home without it.

B-D-P--

In Ireland we work with units of: Up the road or Down the road.

xabi

Most people dont know their arse from their elbow so i doubt it.

Lighthouse Ale

kneemos wrote: »

No,why would you?

God bless America.

For similar reasons people can read and write.

kneemos

Absolutely no benefit in knowing where north and south is.
If it was a sunny day you could check the Sun I suppose, God knows why you'd need to though.

Your Face

Where you in a wooden-hulled ship?

awec

North / South in directions is an american thing from their block road layouts in cities.

Hector Savage

B-D-P-- wrote: »

In Ireland we work with units of: Up the road or Down the road.

Official SI units ..

Hector Savage

awec wrote: »

North / South in directions is an american thing from their block road layouts in cities.

So the block system in US cities is always alligned north-south ?

hmm I must post this on /TIL ... .:)

Lighthouse Ale

awec wrote: »

North / South in directions is an american thing from their block road layouts in cities.

It pretty much an Earth thing and can be very useful in giving directions. For example there is potential to tell someone to turn right at a cross roads when they should have gone left because they misunderstood which direction they where travelling from. A simple North or South of the crossroads eliminates that risk if both people understand it.

The Backwards Man

Remind me never to get stranded at sea some of you eejits.

As my Granda used to say, if you have no sense of direction, you'll go nowhere.

whisky_galore

Must be the reason why so many get lost rambling on our mountains (glorified hills by European standards) and have to be rescued.

kiffer

Some people have poor sense of direction.

It's a reasonable question, but I am no longer surprised when people don't have a solid idea of which way North for a given location.

Also with windy roads we have here you can end up with weird situations... like, I know that the cross roads is North of here, so you should take South road... but really the roads don't point South, you take the East South East road which curls around a hill... and so on.

If they didn't give an answer I would have dropped the North/South from the question and said "I'm not sure which turn to take, can you clear that up?". And they would use some local landmark like "the one with the pub on the corner."

The Backwards Man

whisky_galore wrote: »

Must be the reason why so many get lost rambling on our mountains (glorified hills by European standards) and have to be rescued.

No sense of direction.
No sense of weather.
No sense at all.

Hector Savage

Hector Savage wrote: »

So the block system in US cities is always alligned north-south ?

hmm I must post this on /TIL ... .:)

Not necessarily but it will be consistent whatever way it points.
Heading north on a road here doesn't guarantee that it will still be heading north in a mile or so.

whisky_galore

The Backwards Man wrote: »

As my Granda used to say, if you have no sense of direction, you'll go nowhere.

If you wanted to go there...I wouldn't start from here...

seamus

Neuroscience in this area hypothesizes that the human brain uses a form of unconscious "dead reckoning" - that is, when you are in an unknown place or orientation, your brain can trace your movements back to a known point (the "dead" point) and use that to extrapolate your location and heading. It's complicated; landmarks and the sun are also important for unconscious orientation. If you've ever entered an underground car park and navigated through a load of windowless halls, it's really difficult to determine where you are in relation to the street outside.

Where this is relevant is that if you tell someone to go North or South, they probably have a good idea what direction that is. With map usage also at an all-time high, I expect people are also far more familiar with N/S/E/W than they may have been in the past. East/West though is still more difficult than North/South. Probably for the same reason that left/right is more difficult than up/down.

Hector Savage

Good thread here ...

corner of hells

Hector Savage wrote: »

Good thread here ...

How do I get to it ?

kneemos

corner of hells wrote: »

How do I get to it ?

Left at the roundabout, past the red house and left again at the big Oak tree.

awec

Hector Savage wrote: »

So the block system in US cities is always alligned north-south ?

hmm I must post this on /TIL ... .:)

No they're not, but remembering north/south is easy when all roads are straight and intersect at 90 degrees, rather than the winding, twisting roads that you get in European cities.

facehugger99

Donegal is in the South

wexie

Lighthouse Ale wrote: »

It pretty much an Earth thing and can be very useful in giving directions. For example there is potential to tell someone to turn right at a cross roads when they should have gone left because they misunderstood which direction they where travelling from. A simple North or South of the crossroads eliminates that risk if both people understand it.

You're talking about people who don't understand left or right but think north or south will make things easier?

Mrs OBumble

Lighthouse Ale wrote: »

For similar reasons people can read and write.

One in six can't even do that.

B-D-P--

corner of hells wrote: »

How do I get to it ?

Go up the road :P

diomed

You can't get to there from here ...

Cee-Jay-Cee

Agricola wrote: »

This is why I always briny my pocket sundial. Never leave home without it.

A sundial will not tell you which direction is north, south, east or west. You need to know where North is first and then the sundial will give you an approximate time of day.

You should bring your compass next time.

I know my NSEW directions although the one time I got very confused about it was when I was at the most easterly point in Australia and the sun was shining from the North in the middle of the day, I couldn't get my ahead around the directions as my brain was still working on the basis that the sun shines from the south at midday.

pleas advice

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

A sundial will not tell you which direction is north, south, east or west. You need to know where North is first and then the sundial will give you an approximate time of day..

But if you have a sundial and know roughly what time it is, you can set it up to match, and find roughly what direction north is...

sbsquarepants

Directions are given in terms of pubs and trees here I'm afraid.

Head towards O'Learys pub and take a left at the big tree, if you see a blue gate you've gone too far.

Doesn't matter where you're going, that's how you get there.

jester77

B-D-P-- wrote: »

In Ireland we work with units of: Up the road or Down the road.

plus the number of telegraph poles

Grayson

North and south only matter if you're worried about flegs or you're a Dub.

Colonel Claptrap

Q. Which country is to the North South East and West of Russia?

Answers on a postcard.

Atoms for Peace

Colonel Claptrap wrote: »

Q. Which country is to the North South East and West of Russia?

Answers on a postcard.

USA???

banie01

Lighthouse Ale wrote: »

Does the typical person understand what North, South, East and West mean?

kneemos wrote: »

No,why would you?

God bless America.

I may have finally seen it all!
A ridiculous question posed on Boards.ie that of all people....
OF ALL PEOPLE....
Kneemos gives a clear and concise answer to!!!

To the OP, as our Road System isn't built to US norms and not ID'd as east->West and so on, People generally give directions relative to landmarks on a left/right basis.
Not that people don't know what the cardinal compass points are, more that they are local directions, for local people!

Avatar MIA

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

USA???

Finland looks to be.

wexie

Colonel Claptrap wrote: »

Q. Which country is to the North South East and West of Russia?

Answers on a postcard.

I guessed it (but admittedly had to look on google maps to verify)

I'll keep people guessing though.

feargale

Lighthouse Ale wrote: »

For similar reasons people can read and write.

Read and write? You're new to Boards, aren't you?

Antar Bolaeisk

We do live in a country where the most northerly point is in the south, how could people not be confused.

sbsquarepants

Antar Bolaeisk wrote: »

We do live in a country where the most northerly point is in the south, how could people not be confused.

That's for tax reasons.

Say no more, wink, wink.

biko

Lighthouse Ale wrote: »

Does the typical person understand what North, South, East and West mean?

The concept of using compass directions is common in Merica but almost unheard of outside it.

Cupcake_Crisis

That’s how they give directions in Canada too. I spent 2 years perpetually lost in Toronto because any time I’d ask for directions they’d say ‘go north on Yonge for 7 blocks, then east on Church...’ while I just smiled and nodded and remained lost.

kneemos

Cupcake_Crisis wrote: »

That’s how they give directions in Canada too. I spent 2 years perpetually lost in Toronto because any time I’d ask for directions they’d say ‘go north on Yonge for 7 blocks, then east on Church...’ while I just smiled and nodded and remained lost.

Would it be too much trouble to just point.

Cupcake_Crisis

kneemos wrote: »

Would it be too much trouble to just point.

Apparently. My bewildered stare didn’t seem to stop them.

whisky_galore

Agricola wrote: »

This is why I always briny my pocket sundial. Never leave home without it.

Handy for the half doz days in the year we get sun.

Franz Von Peppercorn

I like to sneer at the Americans as much as the next man but I think giving directions in an cardinal fashion makes sense.

Good job, yanks.

Samuel T. Cogley

LOL reminds me of the scene in 'The Wire' where the chief asks the Cops if they know which way is North and one of them points up.